Victoria Park (Ross County v Inverness Caledonian Thistle)

Today I finally I made use of the Sunday Mail/First ScotRail promotion, which offered return tickets to any destination in Scotland for only £15. The offer ends on 31st March so time was running out. Because of the bad weather in recent weeks I had not dared to venture very far however I did not want to miss out on today's Highland derby and in fact I had ordered the ticket for the match a few weeks in advance on the internet. With the previous games against Inverness Caley Thistle, both home and away, well attended this seemed the most attractive fixture if I was to travel all the way to Victoria Park in Dingwall, home of Ross County.

It is a fair journey travelling from Paisley to Dingwall. After the three-and-a-half hour journey from Glasgow Queen Street to Inverness it was another 30 minutes on the train to Dingwall. I arrived in Dingwall about 50 minutes before kick-off. There were a few pubs near the station, which also happens to be very close to Victoria Park, but they were all very busy and I decided I was not that thirsty. With not much else to do I walked straight to the ground and I was not the only one, many fans, both home and away, were in the stands early. Today's attendance of 5,928 exceeded the population of the town of Dingwall which is only 5,026 according to the 2001 census.

The match itself was an entertaining and lively derby game but unfortunately there were no goals today. Also I left about 15 minutes before time because I did not want to chance missing the connection to the last train from Inverness to Glasgow, especially with St Mirren's first appearance in a cup final since 1987 scheduled for the next day. Luckily the game remained goalless in my absence.

Approaching Victoria Park.


The home turnstiles.


The away turnstiles.


The Jail End Terrace.


View from the Jail End Terrace.


The West Stand.


The East Stand.


The North Terrace housed the Caley Thistle fans.


Plenty of incidents in this Highland derby.


...


Another view from outside, almost 6,000 were still inside, I decided to catch the 16:37 train to Inverness.

Saturday 20th March 2010
Scottish Football League First Division
Ross County 0 Inverness Caledonian Thistle 0
Att: 5,928

Ibrox Stadium (Rangers)

For more pictures of Ibrox see this post and this one.

View from the Main Stand against Werder Bremen on 6 March 2008 (UEFA Cup, round of 16, first leg). The Govan Stand and part of the Copland Road Stand can be seen.

View from the Main Stand on the Broomloan Stand. Rangers beat Werder Bremen 2-0. Rangers lost the return leg 1-0 but this was enough to see them through to the quarter finals. Attendance: 45,959.

Rangers v Sporting Portugal on 3rd April 2008 (UEFA Cup, quarter final, first leg). View from the Govan Stand on the Main Stand. The game ended goalless. Rangers won the return leg 2-0 and Rangers qualified for the semi-finals. Attendance: 48,923.

To my own suprise I managed to get an excellent seat in the Govan Stand for the UEFA Cup semi-final (first leg) against Fiorentina on 24th April 2008.

The Copland Road Stand. The game against Fiorentina ended goalless as well.

The Broomloan Stand: the Fiorentina supporters can be seen on the right. The return leg in Italy was another 0-0, even after extra time. Rangers won the penalty shoot-out 4-2 and qualified for the 2008 UEFA Cup final in Manchester. Attendance: 49,199.

The following season I returned to Ibrox as a St Mirren supporter on 15th November 2008. Kris Boyd scored for Rangers after only five minutes and then Steven Davis made it 2-0 10 minutes after kick-off. We all feared the worst. The picture shows the Govan Stand after the final whistle.


St Mirren showed character and managed to avoid a thrashing. Franco Miranda scored for St Mirren in the 81st minute but it was not enough to salvage what would have been a well-deserved point. The game ended 2-1 to Rangers. The picture shows the Broomloan Stand and the impressive three-tier Main Stand. Attendance: 49,321.


With my mate Marco, who visits me from Holland regularly, outside Ibrox when we attended Rangers v Inverness Caledonian Thistle on 14th October 2006. Inverness stunned the Ibrox side when Graham Bayne put them 1-0 ahead in the 71st minute. Rangers were unable to pull one back and the game ended in defeat for Rangers. Attendance: 49,494.

Tulloch Caledonian Stadium (Inverness Caledonian Thistle v Celtic)

On Sunday 1st February 2009 Inverness Caledonion Thistle were taking on Celtic at the Caledonian Stadium. This seemed an excellent opportunity to pay this ground a visit. A ScotRail promotion ensured I could get a ticket to any destination in Scotland for only £15 so I decided to get my money's worth by making the picturesque train journey to the Highlands. The train from Glasgow Queen Street to Aberdeen left at 8:30 which meant I had to take a bus from Paisley to Glasgow as there are no trains from Paisley to Glasgow at this early hour on Sundays. We had to change at Perth and the train to Inverness was supposed to arrive at its final destination just after 1pm which would have given us almost an hour to walk to the ground. Unfortunately we experienced a bit of a delay in Aviemore and we arrived in the capital of the Highlands with only about 30 minutes to spare. We decided to take a taxi, which we shared with a couple of Celtic fans from Stirlingshire, and took our seats in the North Stand several minutes before kick-off. The actual match was better than expected. It was Terry Butcher's first game in charge as Inverness manager and the players seemed eager to prove themselves. Celtic were unable to score and the game ended goalless to the delight of the Inverness fans. We walked back to the city centre which took us about 30 minutes. We had enough time for a couple of pints in The Exchange near the station before we headed back to Glasgow on the 6:30pm train.

The Main Stand.


The South Stand which housed the Celtic fans and the temporary West Stand.


A better view of the South Stand.


The North Stand


This guy was more eager to have his picture taken than his reputation suggests.


The North Stand


The South Stand


The Main Stand.


The Main Stand from outside the ground.

Sunday 1st February 2009
Scottish Premier League
Inverness CT 0 Celtic 0
Att: 7,007

Pittodrie Stadium (Aberdeen v Inverness Caledonian Thistle)

The Daily Record is not a newspaper I usually read however they had an offer I could not resist. A return journey to any destination in Scotland with Citylink coaches for only a fiver made an away trip to Aberdeen a very interesting prospect. The journey from Buchanan Bus Station in Glasgow to Aberdeen was quick (3.5 hours) and comfortable apart from the boy next to me being sick on the floor of the bus literally minutes before we arrived at Aberdeen Bus Station. Luckily he managed to avoid my legs and feet so I was ready to explore Aberdeen in a pristine state.

I had a few hours to wander about in the City Centre and after walking up and down Union Street, which is Aberdeen's main shopping street, it was time to look for a decent pub and since I was on a budget today I was particular keen to find a Wetherspoon's. When I had almost given up I stumbled upon The Archibald Simpson. After a couple of pints of Deuchar's and watching Hearts v Celtic come to a close (1-1) it was time to head for the ground.

The Archibald Stimpson

Approaching the granite entrance to Pittodrie Stadium.

The two-tier Richard Donald Stand.


The South Stand where my seat was. I had purchased a ticket in advance over the internet.


The Main Stand


The Merkland Family Stand. The picture also shows the uncovered area between the Merkland Stand and South Stand, the only uncovered part of the ground.

The Red Ultras were displaying banners showing the names of the people who died in the North Sea helicopter crash on 1st April 2009. A very impressive one-minute silence was observed before kick-off by both sets of supporters.

Aberdeen deservedly won 1-0.

The beautiful traditional brick facade of the Main Stand

The main entrance.

The Richard Donald Stand and the club shop.

After the game it was back to The Archibald Stimpson for a cheap meal and a cheap pint. It had been an enjoyable day and everything so far had gone as planned. Unfortunately the journey back to Glasgow took a bit longer than expected. The coach broke down near Perth and we had to wait for what seemed like ages to get a replacement bus. After we arrived back in Glasgow I only just managed to catch the last train back to Paisley.

Saturday 11th April 2009
Scottish Premier League
Aberdeen 1 Inverness CT 0
McDonald 79.
Att: 11,114